THE DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD, PAPER GIVEN FOR GOLD .96.
of them made in the city of Cambaluc that he would pay with it for all the treasure P of the world, though it costs him nothing. • And in almost all the kingdoms subject to his FB P rule none is allowed to make or spend any other money . And when these sheets are made in the way that I have told you, he has all the payments made with them, and has them distributed to each one through all the provinces and kingdoms & through all FA FB his cities and lands where he has rule, & even lands which do not obey him which do not VA spend this money; and none dare refuse them on pain of losing his life [q 4c] immediately; • FB and no one from other kingdoms can spend other money within the lands of the great Kaan. P Moreover I tell you that all the people and regions of men who are under his rule very gladly take these sheets in payment, because wherever they go under the R FA rule of the great Kaan they take them and make all their payments with them both for FB goods and for pearls and for precious stones and for gold and for silver and for all LT other things which they carry and sell or buy, • of however great value; they can buy everything L with them, and they make payment with the sheets of which I have told you as if they were altogether of real gold or silver. Moreover I tell you that they are so light L FB that the sheet which is put for ten bezants of gold weighs not one. Moreover I tell FB you that many times a year the merchants come many together from Indie or from FB other parts with pearls and with precious stones and with gold and with silver and with other things, these are cloth of gold and of silk; and these merchants give all of these things to none in this city but to the great lord.' And the great lord calls FA twelve wise men who are chosen[to be]over those things and who are very clever in doing this; and he commands them to look very carefully at those things which R R the merchants have brought and to have them paid with what it seems to them that they are worth. And those twelve wise men look at those things and when R they have valued them according to their knowledge they have them paid immediately with R interest that which it seems to them that they are worth, with those sheets of which I have told you. And the merchants take them very gladly because they know well FB that they would not have so much from any other, and secondly because they are paid for them at once, and also because they change them afterwards, as has been said, for all the things R which they buy both there and through all the lands of the great lord; and also it is FB FB lighter than anything else to carry by road. • And if they are from some place where these notes R are not used, they invest them in other merchandise good for their countries. Moreover I tell
i mercant toutes de cestes chouses present au grant kaan sire Perhaps, "these merchants all present of these things". The writer seems to have written kaan from force of habit and forgotten to erase it after adding sire. The regular substitution in F of sire for kaan from c.90 to c.113 (except in the rubrics, which seem to come from another source, and with one other exception in c.ioo) is to be noticed.
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